Celebrimbor (person)

The final prince of the House of Fëanor, Celebrimbor, was born in or before the First Age. He dwelled in Nargothrond in the First Age, with his father Curufin, and whilst there is no attested record of his date of birth, the fact that he was not present at the Oath of Fëanor, suggests he was born after the Noldor's return to Middle-Earth following the Kinslaying at Alqualondë.

The son of Curufin, and the grandson of Fëanor, Celebrimbor remained in Nargothrond in 455 F.A., even following the expulsion of his father and Caranthir, when Celebrimbor repudiates his father's deeds. However, he, like many other Noldor, was forced to take refuge in Gondolin after the sack of Nargothrond in 495 F.A. He was the greatest artificer of the Elves who survived the War. Though free to stay in Gondolin, he led his folk across the Ered Luin into the lands west of Moria in 750 S.A., where it had been reported that mithril--most beloved of metals to the Elves--had been found. He became Lord of Eregion and the principal of the Gwaith-i-Mírdain, or Ring-smiths.

In the their capital of Ost-en-Edhil, he led the Elves of this region during the Wars between Sauron and the Elves, and personally created the Three Rings of the Elves (Narya, Nenya and Vilya), and carved the signs on the Doors of Durin, at the western gate of Moria (c.f.Celebrimbor o Eregion teithant i thîw hin, "Celebrimbor of Eregion drew these signs [lit., 'letters']").

In the 750 years following, Eregion flourished, and the smiths of Eregion learned many subtle and charming skills, mostly from a newcomer(!) "Annatar", Lord of Gifts. However, in 1600 S.A. Celebrimbor saw through Sauron's guise, and fled to Lórien, where he took counsel of Galadriel. Celebrimbor had "heard" (possibly by ósanwe-kenta, or psychic ability) the words of Sauron when he forged the One Ring, and knew of his evil. On her advice, he dispersed the The Rings of Power he himself had made outside of Eregion, the White Ring Nenya to Galadriel, and the Blue Vilya and Red Narya to Gil-Galad in Lindon. However Sauron's hand had already marred the Nine and the Seven, and the die was cast. Back in Eregion, Celebrimbor himself withstood Sauron to the end, but finally he was taken, grotesquely tortured, and killed (possibly by Sauron himself) in 1697 S.A. Thus ended the line of Fëanor, and the glory of Eregion.

(*) - Gritcha asked me: (paraphrasing) "I don't believe 'Sindarin < Quenya' is quite right. In this case their common ancestor had the k- like Sindarin, palatalized to ty- in Quenya, then later tyelpe > telpe." Ordinarily I would agree with him.

However, if we think about the Noldor having originally spoken Quenya, then we realise that Telperinquar (also, sometimes, Tyelperinquar) was his original essë, or name. Gritchka's argument is that I should say that both the Quenya and Sindarin names derive from a different Primitive Elvish source, an argument I would normally quite happily agree with. However, in this case Telperinquar was his original name, being thereafter retroformed into Sindarin by way of so-called "asterisk-words" (hypothetical etymological ancestors)--and by the Elves, I mean; not just in Tolkien's head.

This happened with the name Galadriel, too, which was originally was Q. Altariel (well, really, "Quenyarized" from Telerin Altáriellë--but let's leave that for now). It would have been then been reworked into a more primitive form, Ñaltariel (= ñalatá > ñalta "shine by reflection" + riel "wreath, garland") and then into either its Sindarin derivative (or as was sometimes the case, a cognate), hence S. Galadriel.

Gritchka tells me this is called a "Calque"--"no need to retrogress into earlier forms. They knew both Q. and S. and knew telpe = celeb, so reconstructed the Q. name piece by piece in S. ... An equivalent would be an Anglo-Saxon named Wulfstan being known as Ulfsteinn in Iceland: they could do that without any knowledge of Proto-Germanic."

Sources:

Annals of Arda, at http://www.annalsofarda.dk/annals-of-arda/Elves-index-tables/Elves/Celebrimbor.htm

Encyclopedia of Arda, at
http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/c/celebrimbor.html